Bye Bye Comcast – Part 3

July 1, 2008 by Kin

My story with Comcast continues. Aren’t you excited to hear how the debacle unfolds? Here we go.

I received two phone calls today. First one is from the regional office that would like to offer me a promotional rate of $60~ over the $100~ regular price tag for cable and TV, which is basically what I had. I kindly declined for two reasons. First reason is that if I switch back now, I will have to go through the hassle of cancelling DSL and returning the modem, which I had not even receive yet. Second reason is that even if I accept this promotional rate, it will last me only 6 months, and I have lost the desire to call to re-adjust the monthly rate every 6 months. Call me lazy. So I decided to stick with DSL for $30~ per month.

* Italicized words are me talking to myself.

Second one is from Comcast Corp. Right off the bat, the call was off to a bad start. The lady, who I will call Ms. C from now on, asked for my name and said that she is calling about my blog post. OK… and in my mind, I thought, what does she want? Ms. C proceeded without ever stating a purpose. To try to clarify, I asked if she is calling because of the Comcast person who sent me the last email, who I will call Mr. M. Maybe they are trying to compensate me? She said no. Huh? I guess I was hoping for too much By this point, I am really wondering why she is calling me.

Despite not knowing what she wants and to try to get somewhere with the conversation, I tried to bring Ms. C up-to-date by describing my situation as clearly and thoroughly as I could. First, I described about how in the recent past, I called in every 6 months to try to get promotional rate (I may have said discount instead). To which, she asked me if I know what I was paying monthly was promotional rate that should only be available to new customer. Does she think I am an idiot? Then she questioned me on my first “Bye Bye Comcast” post multiple times that I did not explain the fact that I was getting the $60~ rate as promotional rate. What the… Do I really have to explain myself? At this point, I got quite annoyed but I stayed as calm as possible and said it was obvious in context and plus, there is a related post “Getting Comcast Discount” on how I have been getting promotional rate previously, which is linked to at the end of the “Bye Bye Comcast” post.

Somehow we got past that after going forth and back for couple minutes. Finally I explained how the triple service package is useless to someone like me, who treats TV as optional and relies solely on cell phone for communication. I would be foolish to pay extra for all 3 services just to get the promotional rate. Ms. C then tried to conclude by confirming that I had call to cancel my service with Comcast and that I will return the digital box. I ended the conversation stating that I understand thoroughly and I will return the digital box at my convenience within the 30-day limit after cancellation.

Boy, I am glad and kind of proud that I could finish the call without raising my voice at my cell phone. I could feel the adrenaline in my body when I hung up the phone. I feel slightly bad for Mr. M because I felt that he was geuine on the phone in trying to address the problem and had the right attitude to at least stop my complaints about Comcast. Unfortunately, another Comcast employee ruined it for him, or shall I say, ruined it for Comcast. Hence this post.

Here are my comments for Comcast in handling of dissatisfied customers:

Send someone with a good sincere attitude.

Understand the customer.

Please state the purpose as to why the customer is being contacted… in my case, I still do not know why exactly Ms. called me. I feel that the call was just to pester and question me about my previous post.

Questioning an already disgruntled customer to explain himself is not something to do to win him back as a customer, or in the least, appease him enough to shut up. Not very smart.

Lastly to Comcast, customers are in the market for the best deals, and that is business as usual. It would be naive for me to pay $100~ if a $60~ rate is available for the same thing, and I doubt that you, Comcast, are losing money through the $60~ rate anyways because you are not stupid and you are trying to make the most profit as possible. But so are we.

Unfortunately for you, Comcast, you began your day with a dissatisfied customer, and you ended your day with a more dissatisfied customer.